Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has asked state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the Kurchatov Institute national research centre to prepare a proposal by 1 March 2017 on the prospects for using thorium for nuclear fuel, the Kremlin website said.

Russia's president Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin said it wanted to establish a “coordinated position” on using thorium. Thorium, a naturally occurring slightly radioactive metal, is more abundant than uranium, and research is being carried out into its potential use in nuclear reactors in a number of countries, notably Russia, China, India, Norway, Canada, the US and Israel.

Thorium-based fuels and fuel cycles have been used in the past, but have yet to be commercialised.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, existing estimates of thorium resources total more than 4.5 million tonnes (reserves and additional resources).

US mining company US Rare Earths has said deposits of highly concentrated thorium in the US would be large enough to supply the power needs of the entire country for centuries using thorium-fuelled [sic] nuclear reactors.

A lot of things will be happening in March 2017. Not the least of which will be the La Porte, TX, test of the NET Power Allam Cycle oxy-NG scCO2 turbo pilot plant with 100% pipeline-ready liquid CO2 output (plus water) promising first-of-its-kind CCS technology.

"US mining company US Rare Earths has said deposits of highly concentrated thorium in the US would be large enough to supply the power needs of the entire country for centuries using thorium-fueled nuclear reactors."

_________________"Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it."

Thank you, rc1111, for honoring my topic on Putin's March 2017 thorium assessment plan. I'm just now reading on the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko—do you know this story?

I am stupid to care, perhaps. I thank you for the, "We'll get there some day." I believe that. I'd like to be alive to see it.

Me, too, on the rooftop solar. Dizzy is a great word choice. A billion rooftop solar installs? Do people know how to make a solar cell? They're made where? With tight environmental regulations for the toxic processes used to make the cells? Doubtful. What is the carbon footprint of photovoltaic manufacturing?

Another thing that makes me dizzy is the millions the American Petroleum Institute spends on prime time "Vote4Energy" fossil carbon ads running on multiple networks at least weekly if not daily for years. The individual petroleum companies as well are running ads. Wow.

All these many EFT topics and comments boil down to one fuel in one machine, in essence. It's all related. We cannot avoid the pressure from solar and wind people. What part of million-to-one energy density over natural gas do people not get? Hand one of them a briefcase containing packs of hundreds, a cool mil, $1,000,000 US. "Vote4Nuclear." That's bribery.

I don't understand. There is no American nuclear industry, nuclear utilities, nuclear suppliers, who can make and run ads?

How many rooftop solar sets are equal to how much U-233 in a "lifter"? The 1 GW(e) ORNL MSBR power station (1970) has a 68,100 kg thorium inventory; one quarter (the size of the Flibe Energy, Inc. LFTR) is about 17 tonnes. How many solar rooftops is that? A quarter million? Thorium density is 11,700 kg/cubic meter, correct? A cube of thorium enough to run a quarter million homes would fit in the garage of just one of those homes? (Disclaimer: I was never an engineer. I'm learning. Apologize.)

What a can of worms. A solar-customer homeowner doesn't need to know physics and engineering. But they'll be paying roofers to go up and clean their optical panels that will get covered in crud every few months. And snow.

President Putin? March 2017. This will be interesting.

_________________"Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it."

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